


You Said This Place Always Looked A Little Better in White

by FireflysLove



Series: Maybe Baby [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Avengers ReWrite, Everybody Lives, F/M, Female Steve Rogers, Gender or Sex Swap, Genderbending, Stop panicking Bucky lives I promise, and they're both in New York for the Chitauri incident, is married to Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-15 16:07:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2235156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflysLove/pseuds/FireflysLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve woke up 66 years later, alone. But she didn't stay alone. Bucky survived the plane crash. Now they have to fight aliens in New York. And figure out what the hell is going on with their strange new friends. If they can stop doing the do for a little while.</p><p>An <i>Avengers</i> rewrite. Stuff's going to be different. Canon in only the broadest sense of continuity.</p><p>Part 3 of Maybe Baby. Sequel to <i><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2111451/chapters/4605966">Snow Outside</a></i> and <i><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2228397/chapters/4888551">One More Year</a></i>, although only the former is necessary to understand this one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which Steve Eats a Danish

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really mean to Steve and Bucky.

The first sense to return is smell.

It’s a dusty smell, one of disuse and cotton left in the closet too long. But underneath is a metallic tang. A smell of new plastic and sawdust.

She hears the radio. It’s a baseball game, she thinks.

Her eyes open.

The room is flooded with light. She’s lying in a bed. On top of the covers, in fact.

Her uniform is missing. So is her shield. She always knows where her shield is. It’s like always knowing where…Bucky is…

Where is Bucky?

Steve sits up. She tries to remember what happened. One minute she is seeing Bucky fall out of the plane, the next she is killing Schmidt. And then everything goes dark.

Bucky’s gone.

The door opens. A young woman walks in.

“I see you’re awake,” she says.

“Where am I?” Steve asks.

“You’re in a recovery room in New York,” the woman says.

“What happened?” Steve asks.

“You don’t remember?” the woman asks.

“No, I don’t,” Steve murmurs.

“I… I’ll be right back,” the woman says, and disappears out the door.

A few minutes pass. Something’s not quite right here.

That’s when Steve hears it. The radio is playing a _baseball game._ But one from 1941. Steve starts to rise and go out the door when it opens again. A large black man in a black leather jacket enters.

“What’s going on?” Steve asks.

“It’s probably best that you sit down for this,” he says.

“I don’t think I will,” Steve says.

“What do you remember?” he asks.

“I… put the plane down in the water. In the ice,” she says slowly.

“You did. On May 4, 1945, Captain Rogers went missing in action after she was reported to have put the plane that Johann Schmdit was flying in the water over northern Canada,” the man says. “At least, that’s what your file says. I’m Director Nick Fury.”

“Director of what, exactly?” Steve asks suspiciously.

“SHIELD, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division,” Fury says. Steve can’t help but stare at his eye patch.

“ _What_ does that mean?” Steve asks.

“It means, Cap, that you’re not where you left. I have something to show you and something to tell you,” Fury says, stepping aside so she can go out the door.

“Does this have something to do with the fact that that baseball game is from May 1941?” Steve jerks her thumb at the radio.

Fury only gestures to the door.

Steve steps outside and into an empty warehouse.

“What. The. Hell?” she says.

“Agent, give me that calendar,” Fury says to someone.

Steve’s looking around at the walls of the room she was just in when Fury pushes a paper into her hand. She glances down at it, and sees a wall calendar. The picture is of a puppy. It’s cute.

“What am I…” Steve starts. Then she sees the date.

“What?”

 

* * *

 

It takes time to sink in. They tell her it’s something to do with her serum.

Sixty six years on ice.

Everyone she knew is gone.

And so is Bucky.

She doesn’t ask about his body, if they ever found it. Sometimes she thinks she remembers Bucky being there with her when the plane went down, but there’s no way that could have happened.

On the third day, they tell her that in 1949 Peggy told the public Steve’s secret. Steve is surprised to find that she’s okay with that. It makes going out in public less awkward.

Most of her time is spent staring at the walls or punching things.

On the fifth day, they give Steve her shield back. It’s been repainted.

She wishes they hadn’t.

On the seventh day, she brushes her hair for the first time since the twentieth century. In the last months of the Howling Commandos’ campaign, she hadn’t cut it at all, and her bangs now reached her chin. She considered cutting it, but just asked her handlers for bobby pins.

On the eighth day she goes out to see New York. Another anonymous woman in a city of 8 million. She sees her face everywhere. “The Triumphant Return of Captain America”.

Steve wanders through her old neighborhood. The building where she left an empty apartment on that fateful day in 1942 is gone. A fancy bakery is in its place. She wanders in, browsing the selection. They’ve taken advantage of the Captain America image. Apparently someone told them about their location. As she’s selecting a Danish, the baker gets a good look at her.

“You’re…” he intones.

“Yes. I am,” Steve says shortly.

“This is on the house, then,” he says, handing her the pastry.

“I don’t want your charity,” she hisses, throwing what she hopes are the right bills at him and storming out.

She doesn’t return to the apartment they’ve given her until well past dark.

On the ninth day, everything changes.

 

* * *

 

She’s shattered her seventh punching bag when Fury walks into the gym.

“Cap,” he says. They never call her Steve here.

“What?” she asks.

“We have a mission for you,” Fury says. “We’re trying to save the world. Again.”

He hands her a file.

“This it?” she asks.

“Actually, no. We need your help with something else,” Fury says.

“I’m sure you can find someone more qualified than a 93 year old who doesn’t know anything past the forties,” Steve says.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure you’re the _only_ one qualified for this,” he says.

“Fine,” she says.

They go to a car, which drives them to an undisclosed location.

“Captain, what we’re about to show you is something I think SHIELD should have shared from the very first. They overruled me on that one,” Fury says as they enter what looks like a warehouse.

The inside looks like a hospital. There is silence in the corridors as they walk further in. They stop in front of curtained windows.

“Again, Steve, I’m sorry that you weren’t told earlier,” Fury says before he yanks the curtain cord and the room beyond is revealed.

Steve gasps.

Bucky is lying on the bed, his eyes half closed.

“What did you do?” Steve snarls, turning to Fury.

“He was alive when the plane went down. When we found him, he was dead. But his heart started beating around the time you woke up, then he was in a coma for a few days. He woke up yesterday. He’s sedated now, but he doesn’t remember anything,” Fury says.

“About the plane crash?” Steve asks.

“About anything. He doesn’t even know who he is. All he can say is ‘Steve’,” Fury says. “That’s why you’re here.”

“I’m not just here because my _husband_ is alive and you didn’t deign to tell me that,” Steve says.

“It was need to know, Cap. And you didn’t need to know,” Fury says.

“I’ll remember that one. Now open the damn door.”

Fury gestures and one of the armed guards posted outside the room unlocks and opens the door.

Steve steps inside and the door shuts behind her. The room is very quiet.

A nurse stands by Bucky’s bed. “I’m going to bring him out of the sedation, Captain. I can’t promise anything. He was very violent when he woke up,” she says.

Steve bites her tongue. This is about Bucky right now. She’ll deal with SHIELD later. The nurse presses the plunger on a syringe into a tube in Bucky’s arm, and then quickly leaves the room.

Steve pulls a stool up next to the bed and sits on it. Bucky slowly comes out of the trance he was in. His hands and feet are in restraints, and he tries to pull them free.

“Bucky, you’re not going to be able to do that,” Steve says.

Bucky turns bright blue eyes on her. They’re filled with confusion and terror.

“Who the hell is Bucky?” he asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. Not as nasty as Snow Outside's "He falls," but still. Rest assured, he'll be fine. Well... sort of. He's going to be Loki'd.
> 
> ANYWAY. If I don't update in the next few days it's because I'm moving into my dorm and starting classes. (In this freakish New Hampshire weather, which should be fun.)


	2. In Which Bucky Flails. A Lot.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve goes to see Bucky, who remembers some things. Then they run away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long to write and post, I've just had the week from hell. But my phone is dry, my cat is round, and my homework is done. 
> 
> This particular section of the fic is reading very differently from the opening of the Avengers for a number of reasons, several of which will become evident soon.

Steve’s heart clenches at those words.

“You’re Bucky,” she says. “I’m Steve.”

“Steve?” Bucky says, his voice like a child’s. “I know Steve. Steve is good.”

Steve smiles. “Bucky. Bucky is you.”

Bucky’s eyes flick to the side. “Bucky is me. I’m Bucky,” he says, rolling the name around his mouth like a mint.

Bucky seems to retreat into himself, then. Steve grabs his still-restrained hand and strokes her thumb over it. They stay like that for an interminable amount of time. A nurse comes in once to check a monitor, but when levelled with Steve’s glare, she quickly retreats.

 

* * *

 

He is floating. He knows he is Bucky. He knows she is Steve. Steve calling him Bucky sounds right. Things flit in front of his face and he tries to grab at them, but they float away too quickly.

He needs to be grounded.

He turns to Steve. She’s slumped over, head resting next to his shoulder. If he could, he would run his hand through her hair. But his hands are bound. Why _are_ his hands bound? When the plane went down, he and Steve curled up next to each other and faded together into the cold, icy darkness.

The plane. They were on a plane. Schmidt’s plane.

Bucky moves his body. Steve jerks awake.

“Get them off,” he says, waving his hands.

Steve glances at the window, and then her hands flit to the straps. Even as she tries to undo them, they both realize they’re locked.

Steve bends down and whispers in Bucky’s ear. Too quiet for someone without enhanced hearing to pick up. “I’m going to pull them out of the bed frame. If you can pull any of them out, do. Then we’re going to make a run for it. It’s a changing of the guards at the moment. We’re going to have to go back to the apartment they gave me for some things, but then we’re getting out of here. Oh, and it’s 2011. More on that later,” she hisses.

Bucky’s overwhelmed by information, but as soon as Steve seizes the cuff, he pulls with his other arm and they both snap free. They each take a leg, and then Bucky is free. Shoeless, but free.

The next few minutes are a blur, but later Bucky will vividly remember Steve pushing a guard up against a wall and demanding his gun and his car keys. They are away again, and into a world filled with color and noise. It’s all too much and Bucky stumbles as his senses are overwhelmed. Steve grabs him and throws him over her shoulder, then he is in the back of a car and he passes out again.

 

* * *

 

Steve drives badly. She hasn’t had any practice on anything but a tank since at least 1939.

She doesn’t damage any other cars too badly as she squeals to a stop in front of the building where her apartment is. She leaves Bucky unconscious in the back seat. The building is surrounded by SHIELD guards in plainclothes. She considers a few strategies, then decides on the one that got her into this whole mess in the first place.

She walks right up to the front door.

None of the guards make a move to stop her, and she marches straight up to her apartment, her hands shaking with adrenaline. The door is unlocked. She opens it carefully, and flicks on the light, sweeping the room with her gun.

There is no one there, but she is still alert as she runs to the bedroom, pulls out a duffel bag, and stuffs it with the first clothes she gets her hands on. The last thing that goes in is her shield holster. Then she remembers the other closet. She opens it and is greeted with men’s clothes in what looks like Bucky’s size. She stuffs another duffel full of them. Her shield is in the kitchen. She places the duffels carefully by the front door and sweeps the kitchen before entering.

On top of her shield rests a stack of manila folders. She carefully lifts the cover with the point of her gun and reads a name “Anthony Edward Stark”. Apparently there was more to Fury’s story then he told her. She retrieves a messenger bag from the living room and slides the folders in, along with every knife and gun in the place. A fourth bag is filled with food.

She slings the messenger bag cross-body, the shield onto her right arm, the gun in her right hand, and the other bags in her left hand. It’s a trick to fit out the door like that, but she manages it, and hurries down the hall. The SHIELD agents start to make a move at her as she exits the building, but she gestures them back with a wave of the gun and a deadly glare. Everything but the gun and the shield gets tossed in the back seat (On top of Bucky, who is blinking confusedly), and then she’s peeling away.

She drives until she runs out of gas. Steve doesn’t know where they are, only that they’re out of the city. The car sputters to a stop on the side of a less than well-travelled highway. She opens the back door and pokes Bucky in the thigh.

“How do you feel?” she says.

“Lost,” Bucky replies.

Steve takes a few minutes to pull off the wrist and ankle cuffs that are still attached to Bucky.

“I saw an abandoned cabin a mile or so back,” she says, finally tossing the last cuff into the front seat. “You want to walk?”

“I… need shoes…” Bucky says slowly.

Steve rifles around in one of the duffels and extracts what look like shoes and a pair of socks. She hands them to him. He mindlessly pulls them on.

“Steve,” he finally says. “Is this real?”

Steve sighs. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now I think it is,” she says.

“Huh,” Bucky says.

They walk off into the night.

 

* * *

 

They manage to break into the cabin, and essentially collapse in a heap on the bed’s bare mattress.

Steve wakes before Bucky, just as the sun is starting to peek through the lacy curtains. She sits up and stretches, then looks around. The cabin isn’t abandoned as she had originally thought, but rather in a state of disuse, as if its owners didn’t care enough to clean it after they left. She rises and wanders, barefoot, into the kitchen. The refrigerator is on, and she opens it to find it nearly empty of everything but condiments. Pulling the bag of food from where it had been dumped by the door, she sorted through until she found a bag of bread. It was toasting and Steve was preparing jelly that didn’t look to suspicious when the screaming started. She put the knife through the palm of her hand, and screamed herself before she dropped the thing and wrapped a dishtowel around her hand before rushing back to the bed.

Bucky is thrashing around, and if the bed had sheets on it, they would be tangled around him. Steve panics for a second before she reaches out and tries to grab Bucky with her uninjured hand. His flailing fist hits her in the face before she ducks away. She finally gets behind him and gently shakes him awake. He wakes with a gasp, and glances about wildly.

“Steve?” he asks in a small voice.

“I’m right here, Bucky,” Steve says, sitting down next to him, and looking directly into the stormy dawn of his eyes.

“It was so cold, Steve,” he says.

“I know, Buck,” Steve says. “But it’s warm here now. We’re both here, warm and alive.”

“I… I remember the plane going down,” Bucky says. “But I don’t remember anything that happened after.”

“That’s a really long story, and I’m not even sure of all of it,” Steve says. Her cheek hurts amazingly where Bucky’s hand had connected with it, and talking is starting to make it hurt worse. She brings her hand up to the cheekbone, and winces as she brushes her fingers over it.

Bucky sits up immediately, and takes her uninjured cheek in one hand as he tilts her face to look at the rapidly swelling flesh. “Did I do that?” he asks in a low voice.

“Well, technically, yes,” Steve says. “But it’s not like you were in control of your body, and I got in the way.”

“Steve, I’m so sorry,” he says, and she can see the tears forming in his eyes as he turns away and curls his knees up into his chest.

“Hey, none of that, now,” Steve chides gently. “We’ve been on ice for 66 years. I hardly expect you to sleep soundly after that.”

“But I punched you,” Bucky says. “Wait, did you say 66 _years?_ ”

“I did. It’s late April, year of our Lord two thousand and eleven,” Steve says.

“Holy shit,” Bucky breathes. He notices her hand. “Please tell me I didn’t do that one.”

“No,” Steve chuckles. “I put a butter knife through my palm. But yes, we were asleep for the better part of the twentieth century. Well, I guess technically I was asleep. You were apparently dead.”

“Dead?” Bucky says.

“I woke up nine days ago. I didn’t remember that you were alive. They didn’t tell me until yesterday morning. And I’m pretty sure that was only because you couldn’t remember anything about what had happened. Do you remember now?”

“Bits and pieces. I remember everything clearly until I came up into the cockpit. Did you melt Schmidt’s face off in space?” he asks.

“Well, something like that. I’m still fuzzy on the details, too,” Steve replies. “Now come on. We should get us both some food, a shower, and clean clothes.”

They rise, and proceed to the kitchen, where they finish preparing breakfast in silence and sit at the table, toast and oranges on chipped plates.

Steve winces again as she opens her mouth to bite the toast.

Bucky starts to apologize again when Steve interrupts him, “For fuck's sake, Buck. I got in the way of your nightmare. It was hardly your fault.”

Bucky mutters something else. Then, “Do we have any bananas?”

“Don’t get me started on the fucking banana apocalypse,” Steve says vehemently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The banana apocalypse. My favourite "Steve and Bucky are outraged about the future" trope. 
> 
> Hopefully the next chapter won't take nearly as long to get up.


	3. In Which Coulson Makes an Ass of Himself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bucky get interrupted then go on a fancy plane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another one of those chapters that took forever to write. And I also got distracted by Pushing Daisies, so...

They spend the day mostly in silence. Steve finds linens and dresses the bed, then shoves Bucky back into it with a cup of coffee. She retrieves the files from the bag and plops down next to him.

“Fury, that’s the black guy with the eyepatch, left these in the apartment. Something about saving the world,” Steve says, waving them around. “You want to read one?”

“Think they might explain what the hell’s going on?” Bucky asks.

“No idea, but I think Howard Stark’s kid’s in here,” Steve says, extracting the top file.

They read for a while, until Steve’s stomach protests. Retreating to the kitchen, she assembles sandwiches and is turning to return to the bed when an arm wraps itself across her midsection.

Bucky’s mouth fastens itself just behind her left ear, and she nearly drops the package of ham.

“Buck, just a minute. The last thing I need is to stab myself again,” she says, laughing. He obliges, but doesn’t let go of her. Finally, she leans back into him and puts her hand over his on her waist. “Now, you were getting up to something?”

“I believe I was. Sixty six years is _such_ a long time,” Bucky murmurs in her ear. His hand trails under the hem of her shirt and skims the top of her cotton pajama pants.

“Buck, you were dead for most of those years,” Steve says.

“So much lost time to make up for,” he continues. “Just imagine what the future has in store for us.”

“Bucky, if you’re going to tease me, I swear to God I am going to shove a sandwich down your throat. Sixty six years plus nine days of thinking you were dead,” Steve says.

“Remind me to remove the balls of whoever decided that was a good idea, would you?” Bucky says, pushing his hand past the elastic of Steve’s underwear.

Steve moans and drops her head back into the crook of Bucky’s neck. “Sure, Buck. Whatever you want,” she mutters.

Bucky snickers as he continues the movements of his fingers against Steve’s sensitive flesh, and then gasps when her hand clutches at him through his own sweatpants. She latches onto his neck with her lips, then thrusts her hand into his pants and takes a firm hold of his cock. He thinks he hears a knock at the door, but suddenly she twists her fingers. He shoves his hips into her bum, and the movement sends his hand to _just the right_ place, and she’s flying, dragging him behind her. They slump over the counter.

A few minutes pass.

Then the silence is broken by the soft sound of a throat being cleared.

Steve jumps and grabs for the nearest weapon (a rolling pin that was inexplicably left on the counter). Bucky turns and pins the man to the wall by his neck.

“Who are you, who sent you, and why?” he growls.

The man makes a gurgling noise, and Bucky reluctantly lets up pressure. “Agent Coulson, SHIELD, because there’s been a development,” he spits out. “We were going to let you be for a little while, but things have taken a turn for the worse.”

“And why should we trust you?” Steve asks, smacking the pin threateningly against her left hand.

“You have no reason to. But I assume you’ve read the files?” Coulson says.

“Maybe,” Bucky says.

“The Tesseract, that is, Johann Schmidt’s glowing blue cube, you’ve heard of it?” Coulson says.

“I killed Schmidt with it,” Steve says flatly.

“Yes, well, it’s being used by Loki to kill more people,” he says.

Steve sighs. “It’s too bad you people decided to handle us waking up this way. It would have been a _lot_ easier to trust you if you hadn’t let me believe Bucky was dead. Unfortunately for me, I happen to believe you , and I can’t sit by and do nothing. Bucky, what do you think?”

He drops his hand. “You’re right. And I’m just as pissed as you. But SHIELD isn’t the reason we would do this.”

“Fine. Coulson. We’ll go with you. But no promises,” Steve says finally.

“A quinjet will be here to pick you up in the morning,” Coulson says. He straightens his tie and walks out.

Steve and Bucky stare after him.

“A what?” she says.

 

* * *

 

They find out the next morning when one lands in the field west of the cabin. Steve hoists her shield onto its harness and walks out the door, Bucky close behind her.

Coulson is standing next to an approximately plane-shaped vehicle.

“Good morning, Captain, Sergeant,” he says.

“Agent,” Steve says. Bucky raises his chin in acknowledgement.

They walk up a ramp, and are each handed a piece of glass.

“They’re tablets. Digital files…” Coulson says.

Steve pokes at it, and the screen lights up with a video and information. She nods curtly and sits down. The information is most of what was contained in the files that Fury had left, but the videos, she had to admit, were interesting.

“So this Dr. Banner was trying to recreate the serum they used on me?” Steve says after a while.

Coulson nods. “He thought gamma radiation might be the key to Erskine’s original formula.”

“That explains the glowing rocks then,” Bucky mutters.

“What?” Steve says.

“Nothing. Zola’s shit,” Bucky says, waving his hand dismissively.

“I must say,” Coulson says. “It’s an honor to have you on board. And to meet you, officially that is.”

Steve senses that he’s trying to make up for SHIELD’s shortcomings, so she smiles at him.

Then he says, “I watched you while you were sleeping.”

Steve and Bucky both look up at him with matching expressions. Steve thinks she hears Bucky’s pane of glass crack.

“Excuse me?” Bucky says.

“I mean… I was present while you were unconscious,” Coulson stutters.

“Uh huh,” Steve says.

Bucky sits back and crosses his arms. “So you were there when they defrosted us. So you knew when they didn’t tell her I was alive,” he says.

“I didn’t have any input on that,” Coulson says defensively.

“Buck, give him a break. He’s obviously not someone with a lot of influence,” Steve says.

Coulson is about to say something, but the quinjet approaches a huge boat and the pilots gesture for them all to brace themselves.

The jet lands and the cargo door is lowered. Steve and Bucky step out onto the windy deck of the boat. Coulson follows them, and gestures a woman with chin length red hair over. “Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, Agent Romanoff.”

“You’d better go to the bridge. They’re preparing for something,” she says.

“There was quite a buzz around here. Finding you two in the ice,” she says. “I thought Coulson was going to swoon.”

“Yeah, well, I wish they had told me,” Steve says.

Agent Romanoff smiles sadly. “So did Coulson ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards?”

“Trading cards,” Steve says.

“They’re vintage,” Romanoff says.

They walk away from the quinjet, which is beginning to roll toward a tether, and Steve sees a man who looks very confused. “Dr. Banner,” she says.

He looks at them and says, “They said you’d be coming.” He shakes her and Bucky’s hands.

“Word is you can find the cube,” Steve says.

“Is that the only word on me?” Banner asks, rubbing his hands together nervously. Not _nervously_ , exactly. More like he’s trying to be small.

“It’s the only word that matters to us,” Bucky says.

“So this must be really different for you,” Banner says, gesturing around.

“Actually,” Steve starts.

“It’s more familiar than you might think,” Bucky finishes.

Romanoff comes up behind them. “Gentlemen, Captain. You might want to step inside. In a minute it’s going to get hard to breathe.” Her sentence is punctuated by the sudden roaring of engines.

“Is this a submarine?” Steve asks incredulously.

Romanoff says nothing, as Steve, Bucky, and Banner make their way to the edge of the deck.

The roaring of four huge turbines sucking water is awesome, but Steve still hears Bucky say, “The fucking boat flies. Well at least something about the future is good.”

Banner takes a step back. “Oh no,” he says. “This is much worse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's just reiterate that Steve has _absolutely no reason_ to trust SHIELD.


	4. In Which Everyone Has A Blast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Bucky are impressed by the future. Not so much by Loki.

The bridge of the ship, Agent Romanoff had said it was called a helicarrier, was impressive to say the least. Men and women line the rows of screens, presumably monitoring whatever it was that needs monitoring. A woman standing in the middle of the room seems to be in charge of the bridge, and reports to Fury, who is standing by more clear screens. At their entrance, he leaves the screens and approaches them.

“Captain. Gentlemen,” he said. He speaks to Dr. Banner for a few moments before Agent Romanoff leads him off, to see his laboratory.

“Now, I’m not happy about what happened in the hospital, Rogers, but I’m also not going to fault you for it. We made some… mistakes… and we’re just going to call that water under the bridge,” he says.

“Water under the bridge…” Bucky says.

“Let’s just shelve that whole thing and deal with it after this crisis is over. I’m not happy, you’re not happy, Bucky’s _really_ not happy, but later,” Steve says.

“I can do that,” Fury says.

Steve and Bucky take their leave and go up stairs to a table overlooking the bridge.

Later, Coulson sidles up to them and casually stands next to Steve where she is sort of watching the commotion.

“So…” he says after a moment. “I’m sorry if I came off as… creepy… earlier.”

Steve tilts her head toward him with a raised eyebrow. “Water under the bridge.”

“Can I ask you a question?” Coulson says.

“Sure,” Steve says, eyebrow approaching her hairline.

“Will you sign my trading cards? I mean, if it’s not too much trouble,” he says.

“Oh,” Steve says. “No, that’s no trouble at all.”

“They’re a vintage set. Mint condition, only slight foxing around the edges,” Coulson says.

Steve’s pretty sure Bucky’s about to make a smart comment when they’re interrupted.

“We’ve got a 67% match. No, wait, 79%,” the man says.

“Where is he?” Fury asks.

“Stuttgart, Germany. He’s not exactly hiding,” he says.

Fury turns. “Captain, you two are up.”

Steve nods.

Bucky uncrosses his legs.

 

* * *

 

Together they go into the bowels of the ship, following a blushing young officer who nearly walks into more than one bulkhead.

“In here, sir, ma’am,” she says, before practically running away.

Steve opens the door, and Bucky follows her inside. It’s a small room, but the two things they were brought here to see are plainly evident.

Steve’s uniform (not the one they found her in, Bucky notes) sits on a bust beneath a light. Someone has taken the time to polish her shield, which she had left in the care of one of the bridge crew. Bucky’s own uniform (also not the one he was found in) resides in an alcove next to it. They are (for some reason) labelled. “Cpt. Stephanie Rogers-Barnes, Sgt. James B. Barnes.”

“Well that’s interesting,” Steve says after a moment, holding the shirt against herself.

“What?” Bucky asks, manhandling his own jacket. It’s still blue, and still wool, but there’s just something _different_ about it.

“It _fits_ ,” she says, muffled as she pulls off her shirt. “At least I think… yep.” She turns and Bucky can see what she means. During the war, she had had a Howard Stark-designed chest binder. _This_ uniform actually acknowledged the fact that she was a woman.

“Holy,” she says, then quickly shucks her pants and pulls on the blue ones provided for her. “Buck. This is the seventh best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love the future. Well, at least its shirts anyway. I’m never taking this thing off.”

Bucky nods at her. “Never?” he asks. “I can work with that.”

Steve throws her discarded shirt at him.

 

* * *

 

Less time than she would have expected later, they’re back on a quinjet. This time it is being flown by a pilot and Agent Romanoff. As soon as they’re clear of the helicarrier, she comes into the back.

“I’ll tell you what I know,” she says. “Loki, that’s the guy we’re trying to capture, _alive_ , is in Stuttgart. We don’t know if he has the Tesseract or not. Until such time as we do, we’re going to treat him like he does. He’s very dangerous. His race is from, well, space, and they’re practically gods.”

“Gods? So Schmidt wasn’t talking shit out his ass?” Steve says.

“What?” Agent Romanoff says.

“Oh, the Red Skull would go _on_ and _on_ about superior beings and cosmic shit,” Bucky says.

“Ah,” she says. “No, he wasn’t, then. In fact, we’re not sure that Loki’s people didn’t _bring_ the cube to Earth in the first place.”

“Why would they do that?” Steve asks.

“Questions I don’t have answers for,” Agent Romanoff says. “So we’re trying to get him alive to get the cube. Or at least to find out where it is. Here’s the plan. Sergeant, you’re going to go in ahead of us. We’re going to drop you on a rooftop. If you can get a shot off without killing Loki, that would be ideal. But under no circumstances are you to make a kill shot. Is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bucky says.

“Good. Cap, we’re going to go in full frontal assault. This particular quinjet is better armed than most. Again. We’re making every effort to capture him alive,” she says.

“Understood,” Steve says.

As Agent Romanoff turns to leave for the cockpit again, Bucky pipes up, “Agent Romanoff, can I ask you a question?”

She turns back to them. “If we’re going to fight together, I’d prefer you dropped the ‘Agent’ part of that. Or call me Natasha. And yes, you can.”

“What do _you_ think of SHIELD?” he asks.

“Are you familiar with the term ‘necessary evil’?” Natasha says. At Bucky’s nod, she continues, “That’s what I think of SHIELD. Oh, and one more thing. Loki has compromised some of our best agents. Including… well, a friend. Everything they know, he knows, so don’t assume anything is safe.”

With that, she returns to the pilot.

 

* * *

 

Bucky finds himself in a familiar situation. On a rooftop at night, rifle in his hands. In Germany no less. The quinjet backed off after they had dropped him off, they were hoping Loki would make it outside before anything too bad happened.

Unfortunately for Bucky, Loki was already outside.

He felt the clammy hand on his shoulder, and turned to look. The hand used his own momentum to flip him onto his back. A single palm flattened him to the rooftop.

“Ah, so there will be fighting back after all. Sadly, you will not be participating. Unless… hmm…” the man says.

Bucky knows this is Loki. Knows he should call in. Knows he should do _something_ at least. But then… Loki takes the scepter and replaces the palm on Bucky’s chest with its point.

A blue flash.

Bucky’s floating again. Warm. Slightly salty. _Peaceful._

“Now,” a voice both from nowhere and everywhere says. “What can you tell me about what they know?”

 

* * *

 

Steve’s standing in the door of the quinjet, staring down at the multiple Lokis.

“Dammit, why hasn’t Barnes taken the shot yet?” Natasha curses.

“Maybe he’s afraid of firing into the crowd,” Steve suggests.

“You and I both know that’s not it,” Natasha says. “But his time’s up. Your turn, Cap.”

Steve shoves her hair back, pulls the cowl of her shirt up, and straps the helmet on. “Wish me luck,” she says, dropping from the sky.

She deflects the blast from Loki’s staff back into him. “Not today,” she says. “You know, the last time I was in Germany, a man stood above everyone else. I had an issue with that.”

Loki stands. “The soldier,” he says. “The man out of time.”

“Woman, actually,” Steve quips back. “And I’m not the one who’s out of time.” Over her shoulder she hears the quinjet’s engines slow and its gun deploy.

Over the PA: “Loki! Drop the weapon and stand down!”

Loki lobs a blast at the quinjet, which veers away. Steve throws her shield at him, and he deflects it. They trade blows, staff to shield then staff to fist then staff to gut, until Steve’s on her knees in front of him.

“ _Kneel_ ,” Loki hisses.

“Not today,” Steve says, and flips around to kick Loki in the shoulder.

The quinjet returns as Loki throws Steve across the courtyard. Steve knows Natasha is looking for a clear shot, and Loki isn’t giving her one. Steve takes another kick to the stomach, then blacks out for a moment.

As she comes to, she hears music blaring over the PA of the quinjet. A man of metal shoots out of the sky and delivers a blast to Loki that sends him flying back, separated from his staff.

Steve grabs her shield and shoves it back on her arm as she steps up beside him.

“Your move, reindeer games,” he says.

Loki holds his hands up in surrender, and the weapons go back into Iron Man’s armor.

“Good move,” he says.

Steve glances at the person standing to her right. The suit like that can only be, “Mr. Stark.”

“Captain,” he replies.

Steve looks around, then at the rooftop where Bucky should be.

And where he isn’t.

“Oh,” Loki says. “Are you looking for the unfortunate fellow with the gun? Hmm… shame about him.”

Steve gives him two black eyes and a bruised kidney for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This makes, what, four times that Steve thinks Bucky's dead? Mhmm.


	5. In Which Steve Reacts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are a few disagreements. And no Bucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to make this _crystal clear_ **BUCKY BARNES IS NOT GOING TO DIE.** (That was the _entire point_ of this AU.) Don't worry. I'll always give him back to Steve, only a little worse for wear.

Steve’s standing in the corner of the quinjet, arms crossed, glaring at Loki. She’s not going to cry now. Not in front of him. There’s time for that later. For now, she turns to Anthony Stark.

“I didn’t know Fury was calling you in,” she says.

“You don’t know a lot of stuff that Fury does,” Stark says.

“Well that’s fucking obvious,” Steve spits out.

Everyone in the plane turns to look at her.

“What? You’re surprised that Captain America swears?” she says.

The pilot mutters something about ‘America’s golden boy’. Steve turns to glare at him when the lightning starts.

They all look around. Someone says, “Where is this coming from?”

Loki makes a small noise.

“What, you’re afraid of a little lightning?” Steve sneers at him.

“I’m not overly fond of what follows,” Loki replies.

A sudden thump shakes the quinjet, and then Stark slaps on his helmet. He hits the button to open the loading door, and steps forward. A large man suddenly appears in front of him, and as Stark raises his hand to blast the man, he gets a hammer to the chest. The blonde man with the hammer seizes Loki by the throat and leaps out of the back of the jet.

Stark starts to follow him, “Now there’s that guy.”

“Another Asgardian?” Natasha says.

“He’s a friendly?” Steve asks incredulously.

“It doesn’t matter,” Stark says. “Whether he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s still gone.”

“Stark, wait! Steve says. “Let them crash around for a while, then go get them. We need a plan of attack.”

“I have a plan,” Stark says. “Attack.” He jumps out of the jet, thrusters blazing.

Steve glares after him, then grits her teeth and rolls her eyes. Bucky would kill her for what she’s about to do. She begins unsnapping a parachute.

“I’d sit this one out, if I were you, Cap,” Natasha says.

“I don’t think I can,” Steve says.

“These guys are really powerful. Basically gods,” Natasha says.

“If I were actually America’s golden boy,” Steve starts, strapping the ‘chute across her chest. “I’d probably say something like ‘There’s only one god, ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.’ But I’m not America’s golden boy. I’m a pissed off woman, and that man just killed my husband, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t sit this one out.”

“All right,” Natasha says.

Steve turns, thrusts her hands through the straps of her shield, and runs out the back of the jet.

 

* * *

 

Steve’s always loved freefall. She hadn’t gotten to do it more than twice during the war years in actual combat, but there were a few practice runs. And occasionally Howard could be bribed to take them up. (She and Bucky had even tried getting frisky during freefall. It hadn’t worked very well.) But this fall is different. It’s into danger, and there’s no Bucky on the other side.

She lands on an open topped rock, abandons the ‘chute, and runs to where she can hear the banging. The large blonde man is trying to decapitate Stark with his hammer, and Stark is trying to blast him into submission. Steve throws her shield at them, bouncing it off the man’s abs and Stark’s armor before it returns to her.

“That’s _enough!_ ” Steve barks. “I don’t know what you’re here for, but I have both personal and professional issues with Loki.”

“There are powers beyond your control here,” the man says.

“I understand that,” Steve says. “Maybe we can work something out. If you could just put the hammer down, please.”

The instant the words leave her lips, she knows they were the wrong thing to say. Stark says something, but gets hit in the stomach and sent flying by the man’s hammer.

“ _You want me to put the hammer down?!_ ” the man roars as he leaps up, hammer raised.

Steve has a split second to raise the shield above her head before contact is made.

The result is _spectacular._ The hammer hits the shield, and the vibranium throws the impact back through the hammer, into the man’s arm, sending him flying. A sonorant bell tone sounds through the forest as a shockwave flattens the trees.

Steve stands up, hands on her hips, and stares at the two men before her.

“Are we done here?” she says.

They gather Loki from where he is _still_ sitting on the cliff. Steve thinks it’s odd that he hasn’t gone anywhere, but given present company, she doesn’t say anything. Stark calls the quinjet, and Natasha comes to pick them up.

It’s a strange thing, Steve thinks, to be returning to a boat in the sky in the middle of an eerily quiet night. The adrenaline has left her system, and she feels like she is in a fog.

They lead Loki away, to a prison made for Dr. Banner.

Fury goes to talk to Loki, and the speech he makes is heard all over the helicarrier.

When he’s done, Steve’s attention returns, at least for a little while.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” Banner says.

Steve tries to stifle the giggle that wells up inside her chest, but she can’t. It turns into full-blown laughter, and soon she’s got her head tossed back, arms hugged around herself, and she’s got tears streaming down her face. Finally, after a while, she gets herself back under control.

“Loki’s trying to drag this out,” she says, wiping the tears out of her eyes. “Thor. What’s his next move?”

“Loki is unbalanced,” Thor starts, and Steve recognizes the deep pain in his voice. “He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people in return, I assume, for the Tesseract.”

He looks around. Steve looks blankly at him. “An army,” she says. “From outer space. This shit was science fiction when I was a kid.”

“So he’s trying to open another portal,” Banner says. “That would explain why he took Erik Selvig.”

“Selvig?” Thor says.

“He’s an astrophysicist,” Banner says.

“He’s a friend,” Thor replies.

Natasha breaks her silence. “Loki has him under some kind of spell.” A brief pause. “Along with one of ours.”

“I don’t know why Loki let us take him,” Steve says. “He’s not leading an army from here.”

“I don’t think it’s Loki we should be worrying about,” Banner says. “That guy’s brain is a bag of cats. You can smell the crazy on him.”

“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother,” Thor says vehemently.

“He killed eighty people in two days,” Natasha says.

“He is beyond reasoning. Mad, even,” Thor says. “And he is adopted. My—our father played favourites, and when Loki’s true parentage was revealed to him, he went mad. But he is still my brother, and I still love him.”

Stark comes in then, and says something about iridium. He walks up to Fury’s station, and makes a show of looking at them all. Despite his wild gesticulations and showmanship, Steve doesn’t miss him taking something out of his pocket and putting it on the stand. He continues saying things, about an Agent Barton (Steve assumes this is Natasha’s compromised friend), and turns back to the table with a comment about power sources.

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” the second in command, a woman who introduced herself as Maria Hill, asks.

“Last night,” Stark quips. Steve gets a twinge looking at him. He’s cockier than his father, but the resemblance is definitely there.

Suddenly, Steve is in the middle of a conversation between Stark and Banner about _science_.

“Finally,” Stark says. “Someone who speaks English.”

Steve looks at several people. “Is that what just happened?”

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Banner,” Stark says. “Your work on electrons is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

“Thanks,” Banner says, not seeming to mean it.

Fury returns and tells Stark and Banner to get back to work, finishing with, “And I’d like to know how he turned two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys?” Thor says. “I do not understand.”

“I do!” Steve says. “I… understood that reference…”

Stark rolls his eyes.

 

* * *

 

Later, Steve interrupts Stark trying to zap Banner.

“You know, Stark. You remind me of your father,” Steve says. “Doing dangerous things for a cheap thrill.”

Stark glares at her, “I’d rather not be compared to my father, Cap, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Steve looks at him for a moment, then turns to Banner.

“So anything else about that staff?” she asks.

“Not yet,” Banner says. “But…”

“It’s Fury,” Stark says. “I think he’s hiding something.”

“You think that Fury, the superspy, is hiding something,” Steve says.

“I’m pretty sure his secrets have secrets,” Stark says.

“Well that was pretty damn obvious,” Steve says.

“Well, we’ll know more once the decryption program finishes running,” Stark says.

“So _that’s_ what you put on Fury’s station,” Steve says.

“You saw that?” Stark asks incredulously.

Steve gestures to her eyes. “Enhanced _everything_ ,” she says.

“Of course you saw that,” he mutters.

“Well, you two keep working on that… I’m going to go see if I can’t find something more… concrete,” Steve says. “I could use a little constructive destruction right now.”

With that, she spins on her heel and stalks out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thor. That is all.


	6. In Which Bucky Doesn't Exist. Then Does.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle for the Helicarrier.

Steve slams the gun down on the table. “Using the cube for making weapons,” she says. “I remember the last time someone tried that. He ended up getting his _face_ melted off.”

“Now, Cap,” Fury says, “those are just a nuclear deterrent.”

“So why does SHIELD need a nuclear deterrent?” Banner asks, gesturing to the screen.

“Because of him,” Fury spits out, pointing at Thor.

“Because of me?” Thor says.

The ensuing conversation is a blur in Steve’s memory later, but she will remember the tension in the room rising to boiling as threats and accusations are thrown out, fingers are pointed, and the integrity of the nascent team is thrown into jeopardy.

Steve finds herself saying things she’s not sure she actually means, “Take away your big suit of armor and what’s left?”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Stark snarks back.

“I know men with none of that worth ten of you,” Steve spits. “I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not a hero.”

“A hero? Like you? Like your husband?” Stark says. “You’re laboratory experiments. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”

Steve restrains her fist. “Put on the suit,” she grinds out. “Let’s go a few rounds.”

Thor chuckles. “You people are so petty. And tiny.”

More insults until finally the tension breaks and Dr. Banner is holding the scepter.

“Dr. Banner,” Steve says. “Please put that down.”

Banner looks shocked that he’s holding it, and nearly drops it on the table.

The tracking system starts beeping.

Banner approaches it, moves a few things around, then.

“Oh God.”

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, in a stolen quinjet, the man that used to be Bucky is pulling on unfamiliar tactical gear. He is handed a rifle. Someone tells him this means he is the sniper now.

It’s not strange to him, but then again, he has a sense of peace with himself that he’s never had before.

_(That’s a lie, a tiny part of his brain says. In the dark of the night, curled around Steve, listening to her steady breathing, that’s peace. It is easy to ignore this part of his brain.)_

The man who leads the team, the archer _(names aren’t important here.)_ , says that their next mission is to bring down a flying ship. _(Bucky remembers a flying ship.)_ The archer fires an arrow out the back of the quinjet, and it lands in the turbine of the flying ship.

The sniper follows the archer and the other men out of the quinjet, and down into the bowels of the flying ship.

“They’re going to try to fix the engine,” the archer says to the sniper. “Stop them from doing that.”

The sniper takes himself off to hide in an alcove near the engine.

_(Bucky tries to stop him.)_

The sniper sits in wait.

 

* * *

 

The explosion throws everyone across the room, Steve tells Stark to get the suit, and follows after him. She has a comm in her ear and can hear what happens next.

_The engine’s down._

_Natasha’s alive._

Stark tells her to meet him at Engine Three.

_Bruce has snapped._

**_Natasha’s being chased by the Hulk._ **

* * *

 

The sniper hears the roaring in the distance, but pays it no mind. He has a task. He concentrates on his breathing.

_(Bucky knows what that roar means.)_

The sniper sees a person dressed in blue step out onto the platform. He lines up his sight and puts his finger on the trigger.

_(Bucky screams with fear.)_

* * *

 

Steve hears the slight adjustment of someone getting ready to fire a rifle. If she was any less enhanced, she would have missed it. She barely has the time to dodge back inside before the bullet rips through the bulkhead where she was a second before.

Stark tells her to get to the other side of the gash in the helicarrier’s hull, so she does. She’s also out of range of the sniper here.

The panel is glowing and red. “It seems to run on some form of electricity,” she says.

“Well,” Stark says. “You’re not wrong.”

 

* * *

 

The person in blue keeps moving around. This frustrates the sniper. He moves to follow their movements as they leap to the other side.

_(Bucky frantically tries to stop him.)_

Suddenly, two other men appear, in SHIELD tactical gear. They are firing at the person in blue. No. The person in blue is _the sniper’s_ target, not theirs.

_(Bucky cheers as his hands take out the men trying to kill Steve.)_

The sniper returns his attention to the person in blue.

 

* * *

 

Steve feels the bullets whiz by her shoulder and hit the men firing at her. She looks around wildly for the person who made those shots.

_Engine One has gone down._

The helicarrier tips wildly as Steve loses her balance and flies off the edge. She manages to grasp a hanging cable, and then pain erupts in her left calf. The sniper has finally hit her. She hears Stark asking for help as she pulls herself up onto the grating.

_Natasha has taken out Barton._

She pulls the red lever, and Stark falls out of the turbine.

_Coulson is dead._

_Thor’s been dropped in the Hulk cage._

_The Hulk took out a fighter jet._

_Loki’s gone._

Steve leans against the wall, blood pouring from her leg. No more bullets come her way. Then, on the comm:

_Cap. We have a situation here._

 

* * *

 

Steve limps down the corridor to a tiny chamber. No windows. Door closed.

Fury stands outside with his arms crossed. “I told myself we wouldn’t lie to you again.” He slams his hand on a red button, and the door slides open. Steve glances at him, and he gestures her inside.

She doesn’t expect what’s lying on the table.

 

* * *

 

The sniper knows he’s been taken. His arms are strapped down, his chest too. He hears the door open, and contorts his face into a growl as the person in blue steps in.

_(Bucky gasps.)_

* * *

 

Steve freezes. She’s never seen that expression on Bucky’s face before. But… Bucky’s alive?

“We found him with a rifle a few decks above you. He’s probably the one who shot you,” Fury says. “I’m going to leave this room. You do whatever you feel is necessary. The only thing I’m going to say is that Romanoff snapped Barton out of it by giving him a few whacks to the head.”

With that, he leaves.

Steve watches him go, then the door shuts behind him. She takes a deep, shuddering breath before she turns back to Bucky.

His eyes are blue. Of course, they’ve always been blue, but that was the blue of a late summer storm. This… is cloudy. They track her movement as she goes and sits at the foot of the bed.

“What am I going to do with you now?”

 

* * *

 

The sniper registers this person, this woman, as a threat.

_(Bucky begs her to kill him. Stop this mess.)_

The sniper again tries to snap the bonds of his bed. The woman sighs. She moves towards the sniper, and towards his hands.

_(Bucky realizes what Steve is doing.)_

* * *

 

She’s not just going to hit him on the head. She can’t do that. So she frees him, then jumps back.

He moves slowly, like molasses. Then all at once, he has her pinned to the wall by his forearm. She lobs a punch to his gut, which sends him backwards, then a kick with her good leg, that gets him over the table.

She’s known Bucky forever. She knows how he fights. But this… person (she refuses to call him Bucky.) is different. She gets one hit to his head that makes him shake it for a minute, but his heel hits her bullet wound, and she’s on the floor. Steve drags him down with her, then, vision blurred by pain and what she’s not willing to admit are tears, smacks his head into the ground twice. He goes limp, and she holds him down for a minute longer, until she’s sure he’s out. Rising, limbs shaking from the effort, she hauls him back into the bed and ties him back up.

 

* * *

 

The sniper is gone.

Bucky wakes to a world in colored layers. He looks around, and tries to move, but his body is still bound to the table. At least he can wiggle his own fingers again.

A sound from his left makes him look over. Steve’s sitting there, growing bruises on her face. She hisses as a man dabs at a wound on her leg.

Bucky makes a small noise, and Steve hurriedly ushers the man out.

“’s like he pulled everything that made me out, shoved it in a box, ‘n put that _thing_ in my place,” Bucky says.

Steve says nothing in reply, only looking at him while she uses the kit the man left behind to bandage the wound on her leg. Bucky knows exactly where she got that. _He_ shot her. The bruises on her face, too.

“God, Steve,” Bucky whispers. “I’m so…”

“If you’re going to say you’re sorry, I’m going to hit you again,” Steve says.

“You… what?” Bucky says.

“Loki made me think you were dead,” Steve says, taping off the bandaging. “I don’t do well when I think you’re dead.”

“No,” Bucky says shakily. “The last time you thought I was dead you melted a guy’s face off.”

“So don’t you dare say you’re sorry. I knew exactly what I was getting into with these,” Steve says, gesturing to her face.

“I still shot you,” Bucky says.

Steve levels a glare at him. “Didn’t you just get done saying that you were shoved in a box?”

Bucky shoots her a pained look. “Untie me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sexy times next chapter.


	7. In Which Steve and Bucky are Thwarted by Pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern pants fastenings frustrate Steve and Bucky.

As soon as the straps are released, Bucky sits up and shakes his wrists out.

“You know,” he says after a moment, “I don’t think either of us has had a chance to explore the contraception of the future.”

Steve blinks. That’s not exactly what she was expecting him to say. “Well, I assume sex hasn’t changed in 70 years,” she says.

“Want to test that theory?” he asks, and then looks up at her. She tries not to lose her breath at the sight of how blown his pupils are.

“Really? Now? Impending alien doom and everything?” Steve says incredulously.

Bucky makes a rude noise, “Doom’s never stopped us before. Do you not remember the Commandos babysitting us?”

“Well yes, but that was different!” Steve protests (albeit weakly).

“How?” Bucky asks, standing up from the bed and prowling toward her.

“We’re on a flying boat!” Steve says.

Bucky has her backed against a wall, arms on either side of her head. “Well that’ll just make one more flying thing for us to christen.”

“There was that time in the zeppelin,” Steve says.

“That zeppelin crashed the next day,” Bucky says.

“Well, this boat’s already tried to crash today,” Steve says.

“Good,” Bucky murmurs, then he’s kissing her.

It’s probably surprising that they didn’t have sex the first night in the cabin, but then again, they were both completely exhausted. Bucky runs his thumbs along the hem of her shirt.

“You should wear this color more often,” he says.

Steve murmurs something incoherent as his lips fasten on her neck. His hands travel down, to the catch of her pants. He tries to get them undone, but gets stuck.

He curses under his breath and breaks away from her to step back and examine the thing. Steve laughs at him, but takes pity and undoes them. She shoves them down her hips, but they’re tight and get caught. Finally, hopping around, she succeeds in kicking off one boot while Bucky frenetically unties the other one. That’s free, then her pants are off and Bucky’s hands are under her thighs. She expects him to lift her back up against the wall, but he surprises her by tossing her onto the bed.

When she shoots him a look, he shrugs. “If we’re going to be fighting aliens, I’d rather not have muscle fatigue.”

Finally, _finally,_ he joins her, and kisses her breathless again.

Things are hectic, they really don’t have that much time, but Bucky finally freezes. “I don’t suppose you have any rubbers in those stupid pants of yours,” he says, face completely flushed.

“Nope,” Steve says.

Bucky swears.

“It probably won’t happen just the once,” Steve says. Bucky looks at her with raised eyebrows, but nods in agreement.

She wraps her legs around his back, hissing at the stretch on her bound wound. He pauses for a second. “If you think me getting shot is going to stop this, you’d better get acquainted with your hand,” Steve growls at him.

Bucky says nothing, and Steve starts to say something, but Bucky shuts her up with his fingers, then a quick twist, and he’s seated deep in.

“God, shit, Buck,” Steve moans.

Bucky smirks, then Steve grabs the back of his head and kisses it off. She tilts her hips up, and uses her leverage to make him move.

“God, shit, Stevie, _dammit,_ ” Bucky grunts.

Steve smirks.

Bucky rolls his eyes, and his hips, and the sudden movement makes Steve’s whole body twitch. That momentum sets Bucky up for (a surprisingly few, but hey, they’ve been frozen for the better part of seven decades) quick, hard thrusts that have Steve curling her fingers almost painfully in his hair. The combined pressure sends him flying over the edge in an orgasm that takes him completely by surprise. His own fingers sink deep into the curve of Steve’s waist, and he pulls her up, then over with him.

Collapsing, he falls on top of her. She combs her fingers through his hair.

“Now we really do have to go fight aliens,” Steve says.

Bucky groans.

 

* * *

 

After they refasten semi-demonic pants, they go out looking for someone to tell them what to do. Steve goes to the bridge, and finds Stark sitting at the table, staring at a pack of bloodstained cards.

Cards with her face on them.

“All right yes,” Fury says. “We were making weapons with the Tesseract. But that wasn’t all we were doing. There was this plan, this idea, and Stark knows this, called the Avengers. A group of extraordinary people. Heroes. But maybe the idea of heroes is old fashioned. It probably wouldn’t have worked.”

Stark suddenly rises and stalks off.

Steve thumbs the cards covered in Agent Coulson’s blood.

 

* * *

 

Bucky wanders into the room that formerly contained the Hulk cage. He finds Stark there, glaring at the now-closed aperture.

“He seemed like a good man,” Bucky says, leaning against the wall.

“He was an idiot,” Stark spits out.

“I’ll give you that one,” Bucky says. “But why?”

“He played right into Loki’s hands. And look where that got him,” Stark gestures to the bloodstained wall.

“So now what?” Bucky asks.

“I don’t know. But I’m done marching to Fury’s fife,” Stark says.

“So are we. I’m not the man’s biggest fan myself,” Bucky says.

“So we have to do something. Something…” Stark looks again at the bloodstain. “He made it personal.”

“No arguments on that one,” Bucky says. He can still feel the insidious calm washing over him, radiating from the center of his chest.

“He hit us all right where we live,” Stark says. “But why?”

“To tear us apart,” Steve answers from the doorway.

“Right, he needs to take us out to win. He needs us gone. He wants to be seen doing it,” Stark says, gesturing wildly. “He wants an audience.”

“Like his act in Stuttgart,” Steve says, coming down the stairs.

“Right. That’s just previews. This is opening night. And Loki. He’s a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants lights, he wants a monument to the sky with his name plastered…”

Steve looks significantly at him.

“Son of a bitch.”

 

* * *

 

Steve goes down to the infirmary level again. She knows Bucky’s following her, even though he was supposed to be going with Stark.

She opens the door, and Natasha turns to her.

“Time to go,” Steve says.

“Go where?” Natasha asks.

“I’ll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?” Steve asks.

The bathroom door opens, and Barton emerges. “I can,” he says.

Bucky rests a hand on Steve’s shoulder and nudges her over a bit.

When Natasha sees him, she raises her eyebrow. Steve nods, and quirks an eyebrow in Barton’s direction. Natasha also nods.

“You were under Loki’s spell, too,” Barton says to Bucky.

“I was,” Bucky says simply.

“She hit you in the head?” Barton asks, inclining his head toward Steve.

Bucky nods. “Well, I did shoot her first.”

“You got a suit?” Steve asks Barton.

Barton nods.

“Put it on.”

 

* * *

 

While they’re gathering their equipment, Steve stops to consider the shield. She’d left it in her room during the battle for the helicarrier. The paint is pristine, covering every mark it had acquired during its service in Europe. Even the potshots Peggy had given it. It had been touched up during the war years, but never those marks. Those were her reminders of those early days.

Gone now.

All the past was in the past.

She should let it go.

But she can’t. It hasn’t even been two weeks yet. Sixty six years compressed into two weeks.

She shoulders it, checks the straps of her boots, and walks out of the room.

Bucky’s waiting there, he’s changed back into his SHIELD-issued uniform. She takes a good, long look at him, then nods. Tugging off her left glove, she pulls off her ring. It goes on the chain with her dogtags. Here, now, she’s not just Steve anymore. She’s Captain America, come again to save the world from sure destruction.

Bucky grabs the back of her head and kisses her violently before they both leave for the hangar.

Barton, now armed with his bow and a quiver full of high-tech arrows, and Natasha, sporting what looks like far too many weapons for her small frame, join them. Steve spearheads the march across the expansive space.

Right up the ramp they go into a quinjet. The man sitting in the cockpit, presumably doing maintenance, looks up at them.

“Hey, you’re not allowed to be in here!” he says.

“Son,” Steve says. “Just don’t.”

 

* * *

 

They’re in the quinjet when Stark starts taunting Loki. Steve knows what he’s doing, but she still fears for his life. Especially when this comes out of his mouth: “Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that one. But let’s do a head count here: your brother the demigod; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend and her husband; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”

She’s not shocked when Loki throws him out the window.

She’s not shocked when the new Iron Man suit catches him.

She’s not shocked when the Tesseract shoots a bolt of light into the sky.

She’s shocked when the army starts pouring through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Famous last words, Steve. (Yes. There are going to be.)
> 
> I'm leaving this warning here, and I'll leave another one at the top of the next chapter. The next chapter (or two, I haven't actually written them yet, so I don't know) are the battle for New York. Although the major plot points of the movie are the same, a few smallish things are different. Namely, that one of our heroes gets very badly damaged. ([Here's the spoiler if you need to read it. It deals with slight dismemberment.](http://fireflyslove.tumblr.com/post/98406382147/a-spoiler-for-chapter-8-or-9-of-better-in-white))


	8. In Which Shit Explodes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle For New York, Part I.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again. [This applies to this chapter (Slight non-graphic dismemberment)](http://fireflyslove.tumblr.com/post/98406382147/a-spoiler-for-chapter-8-or-9-of-better-in-white). You've been warned.
> 
> I really love this whole part of the movie, and I hope I've done it justice.

The quinjet wobbles wildly as it swerves around buildings, shooting at the Chitauri.

“I thought you said you could fly one of these things!” Bucky yells at Barton.

“You want to give it a try?” Barton yells back.

“On second thought, you’re doing a great job,” Bucky says.

“That’s what I thought you said!”

Steve grabs the overhead bar as the jet swerves to take a shot at the battling Thor and Loki, then all hell breaks loose. The jet’s right engine takes a shot from Loki’s scepter, and the quinjet goes spiraling out of control. Natasha and Barton manage to put it down without it landing on anyone, but the thing’s completely useless now.

Steve grabs her shield and is the first person out the back door and onto the street.

“We have to get back up there!” she says.

When she doesn’t get a reply, she turns and looks at everyone. Natasha, Bucky, and Barton all have their faces turned skywards. A gigantic metal whale-snake thing comes out of the rift above Stark Tower.

“The future sucks,” Bucky mutters.

“Stark, you seeing this?” Steve asks.

“Seeing, still working on believing,” Stark replies. “Has Banner shown up yet?”

“Banner? I thought…” Steve says.

“Just keep me posted,” Stark says.

The snake-whale is now dropping soldiers onto buildings as it flies down the street.

A few minutes and many explosions later, they find themselves crouched behind an upturned taxicab, Chitauri flying overhead.

“There’s still civilians trapped in there,” Steve says.

The Chitauri take shots at them, and momentarily the explosions increase.

“Loki,” Barton says.

“They’re fish in a barrel down there,” Steve says, gesturing to the fleeing crowds on the street below.

Natasha looks around. “We’ve got this,” she says. “Go.”

“Are you sure?” Steve asks.

“Captain,” Barton says, “it would be my genuine pleasure.”

“Buck,” Steve starts.

“I know. I’m going to be a hell of a lot more useful up here than down there. Go. Just don’t get yourself killed,” Bucky says, pulling her in for a rough kiss.

Steve waits for the cover-fire, before bouncing off the bridge and down into the street below. Explosions and flipping cars and being generally shot at lead her on a feat of gymnastics until she lands in front of a pile of police officers.

She barks orders that she won’t remember later, and the men just stare at her dumbfounded.

“Why should I listen to you?” one asks her.

A Chitauri takes that opportunity to shoot at her, and she deflects it back into the swarm buzzing above her head. A Chitauri arm in one hand, spangled shield in the other, she turns back to the police officer, and cocks her head.

They follow the orders.

Over the comm, Steve takes stock of the situation. Stark’s still going at it with the snake-whale; Thor’s been stabbed, but he’s working on it; Bucky, Natasha, and Barton are pushing civilians into buildings and taking shots where they can.

Steve runs back to join them, twisting effortlessly into the pattern they have developed.

Natasha’s stabbing them with their own staffs, and blasting them besides. Barton seems to have an endless supply of arrows, although he’s using them as stabbing implements half the time. Bucky’s abandoned his rifle and instead is shooting the Chitauri and pushing them toward Natasha with a handgun.

Suddenly, the Chitauri above them are lit up, and Thor lands, cape swirling majestically, beside them. As he stands up, he uses the cab next to him for support.

“The Tesseract is surrounded by an impenetrable energy barrier,” Thor says.

“Thor’s right,” Stark says.

Thor and Barton start arguing about Loki, and Steve tells them to can it.

Steve takes a good look around, and starts to give orders when she’s interrupted by the rumble of a motorcycle. They turn as one to see a beat up motorcycle with a beat up Bruce Banner on it.

“So this all seems… horrible,” he says.

“I’ve… seen worse,” Natasha says.

“Sorry,” Banner apologizes.

“No,” Natasha says. “We could use a little bit… worse.”

“Stark,” Steve says into the comm, “he’s here, just like you said.”

“Good,” Stark says. “Tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”

Stark comes flying around the building, closely followed by the snake-whale.

“I don’t see how that’s a party,” Natasha says.

Banner starts walking toward the snake-whale.

“Dr. Banner,” Steve calls after him. “Now might be a time to get angry.”

Banner turns back. “That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always angry.”

He turns, and turns green, and grows, and grabs the snake-whale by the nose. It is forced to keel tail-over-teakettle, and pops apart as it does. Stark fires one rocket into a meaty section, and the snake-whale goes down. Barton leaps to one side, Bucky to the other, and Steve pulls Natasha down behind the shield.

The Chitauri on the buildings and in the streets set up a scream that makes Steve’s skin crawl.

Stark lands next to the rest of them, facing outwards in a circle.

The air crackles with energy and adrenaline.

They’re going to win.

Then two more snake-whales come through the portal.

 

* * *

 

Bucky trusts Steve, he really does. But somehow it feels wrong to be up here on the roofs, picking out individual Chitauri with his reclaimed rifle instead of down there, fighting them hand to hand. It’s what he did during the war, yes, but it still feels wrong to let Steve run headfirst into danger while he’s relatively safe on the roof.

He takes another shot.

 

* * *

 

Steve lands next to Natasha, holding her hand up in defense. Natasha tosses the staff away.

They both stare up at the portal that’s still expelling an alien army.

“None of this is going to do any good unless we close that portal,” Natasha says.

“Even our biggest guns couldn’t close it,” Steve replies.

“Maybe we don’t need a big gun.”

Steve eyes her critically. “If you’re going to get up there, you’re going to need a ride.”

“I’ve got a ride,” Natasha says, looking at the Chitauri flying chariots. “But I could use a boost.”

“You’re sure about this?” Steve asks. She’s become rather fond of Natasha in the past few days.

“Yeah,” Natasha says. “This’ll be fun.” She doesn’t sound too sure.

Steve braces herself, shield at the ready. Natasha runs forward, bounces off the car hood, onto the shield, and Steve tosses her skyward. She catches the chariot and swings off with it.

Steve turns to see a gun in her face.

 

* * *

 

Bucky sees the Chitauri weapon nearly take Steve’s head off, and puts more bullets in it than he probably should.

“Thanks, Buck,” Steve says over the comm. It’s crackly, but he can hear the exhaustion in her voice.

She fights off more Chitauri, Bucky taking shots where he can. Stark tells her there’s a bunch of civilians trapped in a building on 42nd Street. Steve goes, of course. Bucky loses sight of her, but he can hear the screaming of the civilians through the comm, and then an explosion, crashing of glass.

“Shit,” Steve says.

“Steve?” Bucky asks.

“Just… so many,” Steve replies.

Bucky sighs.

And shoots again.

 

* * *

 

Unfortunately for Bucky, his ears are ringing from the blasts of the rifle and he doesn’t hear the Chitauri coming up behind him.

 

* * *

 

Steve’s gathering her shield, listening to the comms when the screaming starts.

Muffled pistol shots.

“Who was that?!” Steve shouts.

“Wasn’t me,” Natasha says.

“Not me,” Barton says.

“I’ve got a space worm problem,” Stark says.

Thor doesn’t have a comm. Neither does the Hulk.

That leaves…

Steve gathers her wits and sprints off, tapping energy reserves she didn’t even know she had. The building where Bucky is isn’t far away, and the world blurs by as she tears through the smashed doors, up the stairs, and emerges onto the roof.

The Chitauri in question lies bleeding, quivering slightly. Steve looks around frantically until she spots Bucky.

Except it’s not Bucky, it’s what’s left of Bucky’s arm.

His left arm, she notices dispassionately as she staggers from the shock. Mechanically, she walks forward and takes the hand. The ring’s cool against her finger. She hesitates for a second, then pulls it off. Strings it next to her own on her dogtags.

She sits for a minute, back against an air conditioning unit.

She’s numb. But she doesn’t feel like there’s a hole in her heart where Bucky should be. He’s still there.

A Chitauri lands next to her, and she sweeps its legs out, puts her shield through its skull.

No Bucky shaped hole in her heart…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That makes five times on the "Bucky's dead?" count, for those of you at home keeping score. (Nope. That being dead thing still doesn't stick.) I am, however, incredibly rude.


	9. In Which Things Get Sent Home.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finish with a little less of Bucky and a little more of Steve than we started with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And in the end?
> 
> (Oh, and there's minor Clintasha here. I don't know where it came from...)

Bucky hurts. A lot.

That’s an understatement.

He can’t feel his left arm.

His eyes blink open and he can see the sky.

It’s filled with birds.

No wait.

Those are aliens.

This is 2011.

New York.

The battle.

Steve?

He tries to call her name, but all that comes out is a dry, pained croak.

Somehow, that calls to her, and she’s blocking his view of the sky.

“God, Buck, I thought you were dead,” Steve says.

“’S not that easy t’ kill me,” Bucky slurs. He tries to leverage himself up on his left arm, but can’t. When he looks down, he screams.

 

* * *

 

Bucky’s pained screams send him back into unconsciousness.

“Cap?” comes over the comm.

“It’s Bucky,” Steve says shortly. “One of the bastards snuck up on him and cut his arm off. I’m going to take him down. What should I do with him?”

“Take him to one of the ambulances,” Stark replies. “Those are the boxy red and white ones.”

Steve holsters her shield, gently gathers Bucky in her arms, and races down the stairs.

There’s an ambulance a block away, and Steve sprints up to it.

One of the men points roughly to a bed and Steve sets him on it.

“What happened to him?” the man asks brusquely.

“Arm ripped or cut off. It’s a lost cause,” Steve says.

“How do you know that?” the man asks.

“I fought in World War 2. I know a lost limb when I see one,” Steve bites out.

The man looks up at her, startled. “I’m sorry, Captain,” he says. “We’ll do everything we can to stop the bleeding. James Buchanan Barnes, yes?”

Steve nods.

“He’ll be at Bellevue when you win this thing. My name’s George Cameron.”

Steve thanks him, and jumps out of the back of the ambulance.

Bucky’s going to live. He has to live.

Now she’s got to save the world. Again.

 

* * *

 

Back to back with Thor, they give the Chitauri blow for blow.

A blast catches Steve in the stomach, and she falls to the ground.

She hunches over, fist to the street. It’s no worse than the shit she got in Brooklyn. It isn’t.

A hand at her shoulder. Thor’s. He helps her up.

“Ready to go another bout?” he asks.

“Why? You getting sleepy?” Steve quips weakly back.

“I can close the portal!” Natasha says over the comm. “Can anyone hear me? I can close it.”

“Do it!” Steve says.

“No!” Stark shouts.

“Stark are you crazy?” Steve says.

“I’ve got a nuke headed for midtown. Would you like me to put it there or in the portal?”

Steve says nothing.

“That’s what I thought.”

Thor and Steve watch as Stark flies overhead with the missile on his shoulders then turns up, paralleling the beam of light the Tesseract is emitting. Then he’s gone, into the dark oblivion.

They stand there, occasionally punching a Chitauri for what seems like years. Stark still doesn’t return. Suddenly, all the Chitauri drop dead and twitching where they stand.

They wait, still.

Finally, Steve makes a decision. “Natasha, we have to close it.”

Steve hears Natasha straining with however she is closing the thing, and then the beam of light cuts out and the circle of blackness begins to close.

A flash, then Stark’s red armor falling from the sky.

“Why isn’t he slowing down?” Steve says.

Thor whips his hammer, getting ready to take off. The Hulk catches Stark first, bouncing off buildings as they fall to the ground. The Hulk tosses Stark aside, and gets to his feet.

Thor and Steve flip Stark over and Thor tears off his faceplate, sending it skittering down the road. Steve lowers her head to Stark’s mouth.

“He’s not breathing,” she says.

She looks up, helpless. Death’s not something Steve’s good at, however much of it there is in her life.

Then the Hulk roars and Tony springs back to life.

“What happened? Please tell me no one kissed me,” he says.

“We won,” Steve says. “And only the Hulk kissed you, don’t worry.”

“You see that shawarma place down the street? I want to go there,” Tony says.

Steve ignores his rambling, as she turns to Thor. “It’s not over yet, is it?” she says.

Thor shakes his head. “There is still Loki to deal with.”

“And then shawarma after,” Tony says.

They find Natasha and Barton standing at the entrance to Stark Tower. (Steve knows exactly what they’ve been doing for the past few minutes. Natasha’s lipstick is all over Barton’s face despite his attempts to wipe it off. How her lipstick stayed on through the battle is something Steve finds mystical.)

“Loki’s in there, still,” Natasha says.

“We were just going to take care of that,” Steve says. “Care to join us?”

“It would be my pleasure,” Barton says.

So they enter the building, even the Hulk makes it through the door. The elevators still work, apparently. Steve, Thor, Tony, and Barton take one, Natasha and the Hulk take the other. The musak is pleasant enough, and Thor hums along quietly.

They arrive at the top floor to see Loki trying to climb out of the hole that the Hulk left him in.

They surround him in what Steve thinks is a rather threatening manner.

“If it’s all the same,” Loki says, “I’ll have that drink now.”

They have to restrain Barton from shooting him.

 

* * *

 

It’s a week later that they meet in Central Park. Their wounds are healing, those that can be healed, anyway.

Steve grabs Bucky’s hand, his right hand, and they walk together toward Loki and Thor. His left sleeve is rolled up and pinned below the stump. Tony’s said that the first thing he’s going to do is to build Bucky a state-of-the-art prosthetic.

Bucky’s still skeptical.

“So here we are,” Tony says.

“In the end?” Steve asks.

“The beginning, I think,” Banner says. He carefully lowers the Tesseract into a holding container.

Bucky, meanwhile has dropped Steve’s hand and approaches Thor. Thor bends to let Bucky whisper in his ear, and then looks at him critically.

“I suppose… Just the one. Make it count,” Thor says.

Steve watches in shock as Bucky turns to Loki, clenches his hand, and punches Loki across the cheek. The god stumbles backwards and makes a movement to retaliate, but Bucky has scampered away and Thor places a hand on Loki’s shoulder in warning.

“Brother. You did cost him his arm,” Thor says.

Loki growls, but obeys.

Thor takes the Tesseract from Selvig and offers the other handle to Loki, who takes it, glaring as he does. Thor nods at all of them, then twists his handle and they disappear into a swirling vortex of light.

The Avengers say their goodbyes, offering hugs all around. Natasha and Barton, _Clint_ he told Steve, drive off to parts unknown, Tony and Banner return to Stark Tower. Steve hops on the motorcycle SHIELD had given her, Bucky behind her, and they drive off into the sunset.

 

* * *

 

Okay, they actually go to Brooklyn. They’ve managed to find an apartment there until Tony gets the Tower up and running. He’s promised all the Avengers their own floors.

But the sunset seems more poetic.

“Do you think we’ll get a chance to breathe now?” Bucky asks her.

“Well, we do have to get you a new arm, but other than that, I think the future’s looking mighty peaceful,” Steve says.

* * *

Famous last words, Steve. Famous last words.

Nine months will change your mind.

I hope you’re ready for the next ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not the end for them. Not by a long shot. But before I get into sad, sad Peggy!Winter Soldier mess, I'm making a pit stop in superbaby land. Yes, there are children on the way. Steve and Bucky ought to know better, but it only takes one time. Don't forget that.
> 
> Oh, and don't forget to watch Streamers and Papers because sometimes things happen over there too. I know Steve is going to be visiting Bucky in the hospital soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: [Firefly’s Love](http://fireflyslove.tumblr.com). Lots of Stucky. It is multifandom.


End file.
